Hey everyone,

The last couple of releases have been more about bug fixes, but 0.5.2 has more of a focus on balance and creating a better structural integrity for future releases. I've spent quite a bit of time poring through the bug reports for new information on some of the old bugs. I think I may have remedied some during some circumstances, but it's hard to say since I don't actually get the errors myself.  Turns out it's really hard to rectify issues you cannot recreate.

There are a ridiculous number of edge cases for the limb system, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around a decent way to deal with them all. Consider the following: You have normal arms until your genetics destabilize, corrupting your flesh. These make wielding a weapon or off hand impossible. So you go and do what any normal person would do in this circumstance: Get a doctor to chop them off, and replace the arms with mechanical ones. Had these arms been organic, it would make sense for your genes to take over and corrupt these arms as well, but machines don't care about what your body WANTS to be. Because of  the way Axu is coded, you still cannot wield items in your new arms. This is one of many stories I have heard, and it certainly is a big enough issue to warrant some restructuring. 

 One large change I'm planning on making is the introduction of hands as a slot. Instead of the usual "Weapon" and "Off Hand" slots, each arm will have a "Hand" slot that you can put any item into. Your dominant non-severed arm hand will serve as the main weapon, while all others can perform actions as well, based on your Dexterity stat. Not only does this mean Dexterity will be more viable for close-ranged combatants, but it makes multi-wielding with a large number of arms possible and user friendly. I think this will help with edge cases regarding weapons vs arms too. Let me know what you think!

Anyways, check out the changelog below for all the goodies!

Cheers,

Matt (Cynapse)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CHANGES/ADDITIONS:

    WORLD:

• The world seed is now different than your character's name.
• Ensis Interior walls should no longer be overwritten by snow.
• New custom maps.
• Added the Xul faction and their portable base in the Red Desert.
• Added the Xul Nomad and Blacksmith NPCs.
• The Blacksmith has a small quest line that allows you to get a powerful modifier for your weapon.
• Snow no longer inhibits travel. It was tedious and silly.
• Changed the layouts of the static vaults.

    BALANCE:

• You can now only have three hired followers at one time. (Quest NPCs don't count.)
• Reduced the frequency of NPCs using skills.
• Added a stat that resists electrical and other energy-based attacks.
• More NPC skills use their stamina, so they can't spam them as often.
• Only the hit body part's armor proficiency increases upon taking damage, and only from physical damage.
• You deal 2.5x damage to an enemy that has not seen you yet, making stealth more viable.
• Nerfed throwing item damage.
• Some heavier and slower weapons can knock back creatures.
• You get less speed through level ups.
• Starving only damages you every 3 turns instead of every 1.
• Crystallization and Leprosy effect your limbs slightly more often.
• Crystalization can only spread to organic limbs.
• Limbs from humans correctly give you the "Cannibal" trait if eaten in front of other humans.
• Enemies in the arena no longer have loot.
• Reduced the amount of radiation given by many items.
• Increased the power of Frostborne faction members.

    LIMBS:

• Severed mechanical limbs now turn into scrap upon being severed.
• Severed limbs are now displayed as "Severed [Limb Name]"
• If you have one unmutated arm, you can equip a weapon. If you have two, you can equip an offhand item.

    QOL:

• You automatically pick up stackable items that you walk over (that you are already carrying)
• Items that match your Ranged weapon that are stackable get put into that stack instead.
• More non-unique artifacts.
• Throwing items can now be put into the Firearm slot (now renamed "Ranged") and thrown by pressing "F"
• Added an overflow scrollbar for the equipment menu for if the player gets too many limbs to fit on screen.

    SYSTEM:

• Swapped texture maps to the new map creator format.
• Added various console commands to set stats for debugging purposes.
• Console: Changed "grant" and "multigrant" to "give" and "multigive". The old "give" command wasn't really used, as it took an index. Typing the name is way easier.
• Cleaned up space in the Professions.json file. 0 level proficiencies no longer require a field of their own.
• Worked on map editor to make it available for public release.

    ART/UI:

• Added another swing animation for knife-like weapons.
• Ported level up screen to new UI.
• Loot panel now shows your inventory capacity.
• The ability panel has gotten an upgrade. It now has a scrollbar for out-of view abilities, and has a tooltip displaying the information of the current highlighted ability. This includes its level and experience needed to level it up.
• Moved the main menu options button to the top of the screen.
• Traits in the character panel have colored names.
• Fetch quest steps now have a quest icon on the world map that shows up.
• The quest arrow now points at fetch quest targets.

FIXES:

• Vaults are checked to see if they have been visited in data before spawning more enemies, placing more objects, etc.
• Removed the backpack infinite storage exploit.
• The skill "Teleport" now can only take you to a random viewed tile.
• You will no longer find unique items on enemies that don't own them.
• Did some more work on assuring NPC objects will be destroyed after they die.
• Frostborne are now hostile again, as intended.
• You can have multiples of a stackable mutation.
• Handled some exceptions where thrown items would show up in a separate item pile from dropped items. Might not have caught them all.
• Surgeon's Kit no longer takes money to use.
• Teleport and Blink can no longer put you in doors.
• Items given by NPCs (Akk-Lune, Isazna) no longer show up as their IDs in the log.
• Attempting to buy items while you cannot hold any more no longer steals your money.
• Fixed the offset of the Bandit Adept's sprite.
• You can no longer path to stairs when there is a locked door in the way, even when you know the stairs position.
• After you complete a quest where the NPC follows you, their faction is reset to their original.
• Randomly generated "named" items now have their costs increased by 500%. They also can only be generated as a weapon, armor, firearm or offhand item. They can also have properties associated with them as well, granting them abilities.
• Gaining stats via level up now displays the proper message.
• Diseases and Wounds have proper color codes while being displayed.
• Edible items no longer give you their stats upon consuming them.
• You can no longer force an attack while stunned or frozen.